When doctors won't tell . . .
Of all the online nutritional information, nutritional facts, medical and
dietary sites there are to choose from, in an article entitled "How
to ease the pain" The Sunday Times magazine,
Culture, published a list of just five websites it
considered reliable and informative.This site was one of that five.

CONDITIONS
AND DISEASES PREVENTED AND HELPED BY A LOW-CARB, HIGH-FAT DIET

"NH&WL may be the best non-technical book on diet ever
written"
Joel Kauffman, PhD, Professor Emeritus, University of the Sciences,
Philadelphia, PA

For Building Muscle, Only Moderate Amounts Of
Protein Per Meal Are Recommended

For thousands of years, people have believed that
eating large amounts of protein made it easier to build
bigger, stronger muscles. Take Milo of Croton, the
winner of five consecutive Olympic wrestling
championships in the sixth century BC: If ancient
writers are to be believed, he built his crushing
strength in part by consuming 20 pounds of meat every
day.

No modern athlete would go to such extremes, but
Milo's legacy survives in the high-protein diets of
bodybuilders and the meat-heavy training tables of
today's college football teams. A recent study by
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
metabolism researchers, however, provides evidence that
strongly contradicts this ancient tradition. It also
suggests practical ways to both improve normal American
eating patterns and reduce muscle loss in the
elderly.

The study's results, obtained by measuring muscle
synthesis rates in volunteers who consumed different
amounts of lean beef, show that only about the first 30
grams (just over one ounce) of dietary protein consumed
in a meal actually produce muscle.

"We knew from previous work that consuming 30 grams
of protein - or the equivalent of approximately 4
ounces of chicken, fish, dairy, soy, or, in this case,
lean beef - increased the rate of muscle protein
synthesis by 50 percent in young and older adults,"
said associate professor Douglas Paddon-Jones, senior
author of a paper on the study published in the
September issue of the Journal of the American
Dietetic Association. "We asked if 4 ounces of
beef gives you a 50 percent increase, would 12 ounces,
containing 90 grams of protein, give you a further
increase?"

The UTMB researchers tested this possibility by
feeding 17 young and 17 elderly volunteers identical 4-
or 12-ounce portions of lean beef. Using blood samples
and thigh muscle biopsies, they then determined the
subjects' muscle protein synthesis rates following each
of the meals.

"In young and old adults, we saw that 12 ounces gave
exactly the same increase in muscle protein synthesis
as 4 ounces," Paddon-Jones says. "This suggests that at
around 30 grams of protein per meal, maybe a little
less, muscle protein synthesis hits an upper ceiling. I
think this has a lot of application for how we design
meals and make menu recommendations for both young and
older adults."

The results of the study, Paddon-Jones points out,
seem to show that a more effective pattern of protein
consumption is likely to differ dramatically from most
Americans' daily eating habits.

"Usually, we eat very little protein at breakfast,
eat a bit more at lunch and then consume a large amount
at night. When was the last time you had just 4 ounces
of anything during dinner at a restaurant?"
Paddon-Jones said. "So we're not taking enough protein
on board for efficient muscle-building during the day,
and at night we're taking in more than we can use. Most
of the excess is oxidized and could end up as glucose
or fat."

A more efficient eating strategy for making muscle
and controlling total caloric intake would be to shift
some of extra protein consumed at dinner to lunch and
breakfast.

"You don't have to eat massive amounts of protein to
maximize muscle synthesis, you just have to be a little
more clever with how you apportion it," Paddon-Jones
said. "For breakfast consider including additional high
quality proteins. Throw in an egg, a glass of milk,
yogurt or add a handful of nuts to get to 30 grams of
protein, do something similar to get to 30 for lunch,
and then eat a smaller amount of protein for dinner. Do
this, and over the course of the day you likely spend
much more time synthesizing muscle protein."

It's important to note that most protein-rich foods
such as meat, cheese, and fish are actually only about
one-fourth (23%) protein. So, for an intake of 30 grams
of protein, you need to eat about 120 grams (just over
4 ounces) of the food.

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Disclaimer: Second Opinions is the website of Barry Groves PhD, offering online nutritional facts and online nutritional information. This website should be used to support rather than replace medical advice advocated by physicians.sitemap